NFL Network: Raiders will release TE Boss

Kevin Boss, the tight end brought in to replace Zach Miller last August, will be released by the Raiders, the NFL Network reported Monday.
Boss signed a four-year, $16 million contract after Miller signed with the Seattle Seahawks. Boss missed the first two games of the season with a knee injury sustained against the San Francisco 49ers in the preseason and later had a concussion during the season.

In 14 games, with 11 starts, Boss caught 28 passes for 368 yards and three touchdowns, his lowest figures since his rookie season with the New York Giants.

Given that Miller left the Raiders and received a reported $17 million in guaranteed money, Boss, with reportedly $8 million guaranteed, seemed like a bargain.

The Raiders were still working Monday to get under the NFL salary cap, reportedly set at $120.6 million.

In other news, Oakland reportedly will not be the beneficiary of $1.6 million in cap relief because of a minor violation regarding salary structure in the uncapped season of 2010.

ESPN reported theWashington Redskins lost $36 million and Dallas $10 million because of major violations that included front-loading contracts during the uncapped season. That money would be allocated in terms of cap relief to the remaining teams except the Raiders and New Orleans Saints, who had unspecified violations.

The NFL confirmed irregularities in contract practices to a “small number’’ of teams but did not specify the infractions, the teams or the amount of money those teams were penalized.

There has been no movement to the Raiders with regard to linebacker Kamerion Wimbley, whose agent said there has been no contact with his client in recent days. Wimbley, should he be on the roster March 17, would be in line for $17.5 million in guaranteed money.

The Raiders would like Wimbley to accept a cut in pay, but will still owe him $6.5 million if he is released.

One linebacker who will return is Aaron Curry, who was due $5.75 million in the original deal he signed with the Seattle Seahawks as the No. 4 overall pick in the draft. Curry agreed to restructured deal, terms of which were unavailable, the club announced.

What Makes Teams Win? 2
This is a contiuation of an article discussing the relative importance of factors in winning NFL games. Part 1 is here.

TURNOVERS

Turnovers can be analyzed in the same manner. If we want to know how good a defense is at intercepting passes, we should look at interceptions per pass and not total interceptions. Offenses may shy away from passing the ball if a secondary is known to be excellent at generating interceptions. Their ‘total interceptions’ stat would suffer as a result of teams leaning towards the run, but their interception efficiency would tell the real story.

J Hill

Did anyone answer the question earlier of when OTAs start?

Raider Weapon X http://www.raidernationstation.com/

Bryant is apparently being considered for NT(!!) at 290. Hes supposedly the strongest D lineman on the team. Hmm…

Shonasty has developed into an edge setter against the run and a multi move pass rush threat on 3rd

Yards per pass attempt is merely pass yards divided by pass attempts. So we have a relatively weak statistic (0.31) divided by an even weaker one with a negative correlation with winning (-0.17). We would expect to have a fairly meaningless result, but we don’t. Passing efficiency turns out to be strongly correlated with winning (0.61). And unless having a lead in a game ‘causes’ a team’s passes to be more successful, we can safely say that passing efficiency leads to winning.

Because sacks are an important factor in the passing game, I include plays that result in sacks as pass attempts for the purpose of calculating efficiency. Likewise, I also subtract sack yards from total passing yards. I call this true pass efficiency and have found it correlates better with both offensive points scored and wins.

J Hill

Shonasty has developed into an edge setter against the run and a multi move pass rush threat on 3rd

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What is the job description of the elephant OLB in a 3-4?

Seymour Bush

KoolKell Says:
March 12th, 2012 at 5:37 pm

One way to measure the relative importance of passing vs. running, or offense vs. defense, is to measure their statistical correlations with season wins. For example, the correlation coefficient of a team’s total rushing yards correlates with its number of wins in a season is 0.45. A correlation of 1.0 would be perfect correlation, while a correlation of 0.0 would indicate no relationship. So 0.45 implies that total rushing yards is a moderately strong indication of how many games a team would win.

In comparison, total passing yards correlates with wins at 0.31. Compared with total rushing yards, total passing yards is less important in terms of winning games. This is what most fans and analysts notice when watching games or glancing at team stats. But does this mean that passing is less important than running in the NFL?

No. One thing you all have heard me hark on for years is how baseball is a wonderful game of statistics where football really isn’t. Football is so much more of a team game that you REALLY need to look very closely at stats to determine what is going on on a football field. An example would be an offensive tackle that misses his block causing a Q to throw the ball away, or a Q who hits a receiver right in the hands but it is batted up and picked off. Either case the Q made the right play but statistically he would look terrible.

Going with your example above, more passing yards would most likely correlate to teams trying to come back late in games where running the ball would correlate to teams leading and running out the clock. Those correlations make sense. Of course you could see a Peyton Manning or Brady going 14 for 16 for 225 yards and two TD’s in the lst half of a game and then running it more in the 2nd half. You might not think that the passing game was that important but in this instance probably was the part of the game plan that actually would be responsible for winning the game.

Just Fire Baby

Likewise, I also subtract sack yards from total passing yards. I call this true pass efficiency and have found it correlates better with both offensive points scored and wins.

***********************

QB rating factors in this stuff as well.

Raider Weapon X http://www.raidernationstation.com/

KoolKell Says:
March 12th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
What Makes Teams Win? 2
This is a contiuation of an article discussing the relative importance of factors in winning NFL games. Part 1 is here.

TURNOVERS

Turnovers can be analyzed in the same manner. If we want to know how good a defense is at intercepting passes, we should look at interceptions per pass and not total interceptions. Offenses may shy away from passing the ball if a secondary is known to be excellent at generating interceptions. Their ‘total interceptions’ stat would suffer as a result of teams leaning towards the run, but their interception efficiency would tell the real story.

===================

Stats don’t tell the story alone. Thats why some people who never see the games (not saying you)run numbers like they mean everything but rarely take into account factors like injuries to oppsing players like O linemen accounting for bad passes that get intercepted, injured missing WRs who’s back ups tip passes ect ect.

Example: Green Bays D had more interceptions than any other team by far but their D ratings were terrible.

Penalty rates, however, do tend to be repeatable. Teams that have committed lots of penalties tend to continue to commit more, and vice versa. Experience, discipline, preparation, and playbook complexity probably all contribute to penalty rates. Other factors probably come into play. For example, it might be expected that weak secondaries would tend to commit more pass interference penalties in desperation to prevent deep passes.

Penalties and penalty yards correlate negatively with winning, as we’d expect. (Penalty rate is defined as penalty yards per play.)

Stats aren’t everything sure, but they are useful. I bet NFL Front Offices and Coaches use stats a lot. Of course they do.
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Most teams use a system of grading. Some have standardized systems, some have developed their own grading systems. Stats are more for fans. NFL people use grading systems for the reasons I explained.
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What’s a grading system made up of, Certain Stats, perhaps?

Seymour Bush

J Hill Says:
March 12th, 2012 at 5:46 pm

Did anyone answer the question earlier of when OTAs start?
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After the draft. They will take place in May and June altho no exact dates have been set yet.

NO to Leinart NO to Leinart NO to Leinart NO to Leinart NO to Leinart NO to Leinart NO to Leinart

Any questions?

John Jarndyce

Glad to see Randy back in the Bay Area.

HayesDaze37

Anybody want to see this Offense go backwards?

If so, bring in Leinart.

If Boller is the problem @ #2, Leinart is not the answer.

John Jarndyce

Leinart played pretty well for Texans last year before his injury.

Seymour Bush

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What’s a grading system made up of, Certain Stats, perhaps?
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Very similar to what Pro Football Focus does. When you run a play, the play boils down to all the individual battles. The lst thing would be does the player know his individual assignment, does he do the thing that he is coached to do, does he win that individual battle, and if he does, does he do what is next on the list.

Take any player, a WR say. lst thing might be, OK, the play has an option route. Does the player line up right, does he recognize the right read, does he put himself in a position where the Q can get him the rock. After that, does he make the reception and then know what to do, i.e, cut up the field, or get out of bounds if timeouts or two minute situation. Stuff like this.

Just Fire Baby

There is 100 guys better than Kyle Boller.

Leinart may be one of them, but I would rather look at one of the other 99 or so guys.